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Question of the Week

KARL von Wogau is a German Christian Democrat MEP and chairman of the Kangaroo Group, which campaigns for the completion of the single market. He was the European Parliament’s negotiator during the creation of the Stability and Growth Pact.

European Voice

7/7/04, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 10:20 AM CET

We asked him: How should the European Court of Justice rule in the dispute between the European Commission and the Council of Ministers over the Stability and Growth Pact?

Von Wogau: The judgement of the court will be about procedure rather than content but I think that clarification of the procedure is extremely important. Unless the procedure is really followed, to the point of sanctions if these are necessary, then the pact has no chance for the future.

People forget the basic idea of the pact, which says that what we need are balanced budgets and surpluses in the countries that are very highly indebted.

We now have a public debt in the EU of €6,000 billion and I estimate that yearly interest payments on that debt are €240bn.

If you really want to have confidence in the single currency, you have to stick to the procedures of the pact. The German example is very dangerous because a precedent has been created. We now see that other countries, such as Italy, refer to that precedent and it is very difficult to argue against them.

That is one reason why this judgement is extremely important.

We really have to make clear that the possibility exists that breaching the pact leads to sanctions.

Otherwise it will be a tiger without teeth. We have to go back to the original spirit of the pact.